118 BARON WALKENAER ON THE 



Before the invention of printing we had no other sources of 

 instruction than those furnished by the ancients. After this inven- 

 tion their works were more diffused and became better known. 

 The admiration they excited, and the influence which they had 

 acquired over the mind, was yet more increased by means of 

 the invention of printing ; and was, indeed, a necessary con- 

 sequence of the abundance and perfection of their writings. 



To expound and understand them well, and to classify 

 the notions they exhibited, was everywhere the ambition of 

 learned men. Every treatise, on whatever branch of human 

 learning it might be, was a compilation, more or less metho- 

 dical and complete, of what the ancients had written on the 

 subject. To this was occasionally added what the moderns 

 thought or had observed respecting it ; but these additions did 

 not carry the same weight and authority to the mind of the 

 reader as the rest of the book ; nor was it ever intended by 

 the author that they should do so. But little account was 

 made of any proposition or observation without the addition of 

 ut ait Aristoteles, ut ait Plinius, ut ait Hippocrates, and 

 other phrases of the like import. 



It was fortunate for the progress of natural history, that the 

 great number of new productions brought to Europe from 

 newly discovered countries, toward the end of the fifteenth and 

 at the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, soon convinced 

 every one of the incompleteness of the writings of the ancients 

 on the science. 



It was then discovered that most of the objects which they 

 had occasion to describe were absolutely unknown to them, 

 and that they had very superficially observed and imper- 

 fectly described those with which they were acquainted. We 

 most readily come to this conclusion in regard to the smallest 

 animals ; because the ignorance of the ancients on this point 

 was greater than on almost any other, and the application of 

 their notions respecting them to the uses of modern science is 

 proportionably difficult and perplexing. 



In the case of insects it was quickly ascertained that the 

 ancients had only treated of a small number, and of these very 

 incorrectly. When naturalists left off studying their writings, 

 and gave themselves up to the study of nature exclusively, the 

 science soon made rapid advances. 



However, the names which the ancients gave to some classes 



